Emergency broadcast technologies exist for notifying people about emergencies through radio and television broadcasts. Existing broadcast technologies, such as Cell Broadcast, Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services, and video broadcasts, have been proposed to support emergency alert notification(s) to wireless subscribers. A problem with such broadcast technologies is that the end user does not know when an emergency alert is being broadcast, and thus does not know that he or she needs to tune to an appropriate broadcast channel for the emergency alert information. This situation can be exacerbated if the end user has a disability, such as a hearing impairment.
Conventionally, communication systems for the hearing impaired include a variety of communication devices and services. By way of example, Sorenson Communications® offers the NTOUCH® VP videophone and the VP-200 videophone that utilize the SORENSON VIDEO RELAY SERVICE®, a service that provides sign language interpretation to hearing impaired video phone users.
There is a need for methods and apparatuses to emergency notifications to the hearing impaired.